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Another acquisition by AOL, this time of phone-personalization software company Wildseed, will help it get onto more mobile phones.

Phone services has heated up as a focal point for Internet players. AOL will try to compete with Yahoo in getting its services onto mobile phones, and has acquired software company Wildseed to help it do that.

According to a USA Today report, Wildseed will be incorporated into AOL's new Wireless Unit. Deals with providers of wireless handsets will get AOL software preloaded onto phones. That should help the company keep its users from straying to competitors on mobile phones.

AOL recently acquired online storage firm Xdrive, which allows users to store information on a secure, centralized platform that undergoes regular backups. That service could be the base for AOL users to place content like images or music, and retrieve them remotely from a cellphone as well as a typical desktop machine.

Wildseed CEO Eric Engstrom was the co-inventor of the DirectX game platform; he was program manager at Microsoft for DirectX. Terms of the purchase of the privately-held company were not disclosed.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.